Post by Dana Jones 12:33 PM April 2nd, 20XX

Today, at my job, a group of assholes just ran in, grabbed a crap ton of our thousand dollar purses then booked it. I mean, that’s a felony right there so I followed protocol, told law enforcement, and waited. A few minutes later I heard a chime and bam! All the money the store would have received from the purses dropped onto the counter along with a note telling me who it was, what they had taken or destroyed, and that the money was confiscated from their bank accounts and personal caches. The rest was, according to the note, made up for by the Passivity Precept and will be paid back to it later, apparently. This is our new normal.

While I waited for Lore to return I opened my favorite MMO. As my paladin, I peered around the three-dimensional forest. It looked fantastic. Or it had. The pixels and polygons made everything appear… wrong.

Not wanting to think too deeply about recent changes, in reality, I sold off some newly acquired gear before I logged off and checked my bank account.

Staying at this hotel cost too much. If I was going to be a professional gamer within the PPVS I needed to live in an inexpensive location. Maybe Montana or Alaska? Naw, Las Vegas. It was closer. Either way, I knew I wanted to stay in the USA, at least until I researched the laws and prices in other countries. And I should probably wait until the craziness with the PPVS had calmed down. There were far too many looters out there for my liking. And even if, according to the news posts I noticed on my YouTube home screen, the PPVS did give out the amount of money for things stolen — taken from the thief themselves — it couldn’t replace things like pictures or the crappy jokes I wrote in that secret note document.

I started to get into my research and, when I saw a good price, I considered calling up an apartment. At 850 a month, the place was a steal.

Suddenly, I heard a foreign curse word that sounded like the equivalent of a well-deserved, “Mother Fucker.”

“I wasn’t done talking, you asshole!”

I jumped and swiveled my chair around to see a red-cheeked, pissed off, adolescent elf yelling at the ceiling. Still shocking to see him in the real world even if he didn’t look the same. His hair, closer to white than silver, had complex braids with blue beads woven into it instead of floating jewelry. While every visible inch of his skin appeared flawless, his tan face had different features, like a round chin instead of a cleft one, slightly thinner lips and larger eyes, but I knew instinctively that it was him. I mean, he did have pointy ears. That kind of gave it away.

“Ah, hi Lore. You’re back.”

“Mia.”

“It’s Grace, actually. Er, I mean, my real name. Grace Winston.”

God, I felt so awkward. Why was meeting online friends always so...

He clenched his jaw. “We need to return. We have a heist to prepare for.” When he turned away from me, I noticed that his fancy sapphire robes with intricate designs wasn’t exactly filthy but, it was torn in places, and a dark stain across his back told me that something covered in grime had fallen on him. Before I could ask about it, he disappeared.

With a sigh, I jumped onto my bed and logged back in.

As soon as I reappeared in his room he grabbed my hand and spun me toward the door.

“My contacts messaged me while I was away.”

We practically jumped down the stairs with how quickly we rushed. He led me to an alleyway of some kind, one which was cleaner than the streets of LA, but not by much. A woman carrying a fan in one hand and a wizard’s staff in the other met us there. She had a body like Crimea and wore fuchsia robes that opened enough at the front to show off her cleavage. She grinned at Lore.

“So, you’re finally selling that item?” She said her voice like honey.

He nodded grimly and briefly rested a hand on my shoulder. “She’s handling my money so pay her and I’ll hand you the item.”

Lorevinel Silvercat: Expect 30,000 PMk. Nothing less.

Wait... wasn’t that like 4.5k USD? My eyes nearly bulged but I managed to school my features into a blank mask. While I was shit at acting, I could do a blank face like a pro.

Lore held out a bamboo box and she rested her hand on it.

Siash Rosenraven would like to give your team 30,000 PMk. Would you like to agree? Yes or No?

I accepted and a boggling amount of money appeared in our shared wallet.

“Bye,” She said, then walked off with the box. I didn’t even get to see what the item was.

“That... Who was that? What item was that? What’s going on?”

He glanced at me and sighed. Despite the windfall in our team’s wallet, he looked like a heavy burden had been placed on his shoulders.

“That was a contact of mine. She’s an Allure Mage, a wizard who specializes in spells that charm enemy monsters or people. And she wants this transaction to remain secret. Considering the object, I don’t blame her.” He started walking. “We were fortunate that her last one broke before she could repair it and she needed a new one.”

I followed and he led me to a small park where various people either walked or stared out at the small pond where swans floated. A man with a giant shield gazed at an orange fish that swam near the shallow end. They didn’t say anything, but the man handed Lore something in a box. This time I Observed it.

[Bamboo Box. Durability 279/300. It is just a box. What’s inside the box? Who knows!]

I was so busy reading that it took me a second to notice our shared money had gone down by 25k and that the shield guy had wandered off.

“Lore... What—”

“Shush.”

Lorevinel Silvercat: Use messaging in public if you’re going to ask about things that should remain secret.

Mia: What are we doing? And why can you spend money from our shared wallet?

Lorevinel Silvercat: We’re merely selling some of my items. Unfortunately, tools for our heist will be expensive.

With an elegant hand gesture, he adjusted our course to a street filled with people and food stands.

Lorevinel Silvercat: Besides, I can only spend what you know I put into our shared wallet. It’s strange but it works like this: since you know that the PMk is unequivocally mine you’ve unconsciously given me permission to use it.

Mia: That... is weird, but whatever. Also, why is everything so expensive?

Lorevinel Silvercat: We’re dealing with players who are between level 15-20. They are at the level where they’ll soon absolutely have to move onto another area because they’ve finished every possible thing they can do within 3 days of here. Besides, they can afford it.

Mia: No, I mean, why are the items we’re buying so expensive.

I noticed him smirk for a second.

Lorevinel Silvercat: We’re breaking into a safe that would trouble everyone but a level 30 thief; and they have better things to do.

Mia: So, we’re buying items that will let you be the equivalent of a level 30 thief?

He shrugged and led us to a line where someone sold delicious smelling meat and vegetable kabobs. My stomach groaned from being empty. Hunger? I could get hungry in this game?!

A few more elves stepped in behind us. Lore put his hands behind his back and sighed again. When we reached the front of the line he purchased six kabobs and gave three to me.

“Thank you.”

“No problem. While it’s possible to go without food in the PPVS I don’t recommend it. It gives you Intelligence debuffs. Those make you do and think stupid things.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

He grimaced. “It’s not.”

I suddenly remembered a brief stupid thought I had while in the dungeon, where I actually agreed with something my stupid uncle Greg said. That should have been my first red flag.

“Do Charisma debuffs do something similar?” I took a bite of my kebob and a burst of unfamiliar and slightly spicy flavor hit my mouth.

A hint of red appeared on his face and I guessed he was remembering something embarrassing. “Yes. Not only do they make you physically look and smell disgusting to other people; they also affect how you act. And how well you can use Charisma-based skills.”

Oh! No wonder he was so anti-Charisma debuff.

“Wait. The prompt I received didn’t mention anything about that.”

He shrugged. “Sometimes the PPVS doesn’t warn you of the full consequences of things. Especially if knowing about something will affect how you act.” He grinned ruefully. “Of course, sometimes knowing about something makes it worse.”

“Right, so avoid Charisma debuffs and Intelligence debuffs from now on.”

“Absolutely.”

Once we finished our food, we strolled around a market area and I stopped at a shop that sold fancy-looking clothes. I pointed to it and Lore shook his head. “We don’t have enough money.”

“We don’t?” I opened our shared wallet and froze. When the hell did he spend 5k! It definitely wasn’t on the cheap kabobs.

He winked at me and continued onward.